Green Londoners may get tax incentives

Londoners who have an eco-friendly home and recycle a certain proportion of their household waste could pay less council tax, according to green incentive schemes being developed by London mayor Ken Livingstone.

But Livingstone's critics have attacked the plans, claiming that other homeowners would have to pay more to compensate for the tax cuts, and new-build homes would become more expensive to cover the costs of environmental measures.

Tony Arbour, the Conservative party's GLA spokesperson on planning, said the high costs of making an existing home sustainable meant that council tax cuts would go to those rich enough to undertake the building work.

He said: "This is bad news for just about everyone. Existing homeowners will be forced to pay higher tax to subsidise those in newer, more environment-friendly homes. This in turn will mean that affordable homes will become much more expensive as developers recoup the costs of these expensive environmental measures. In short this is more bad news for already hard-pressed London home owners."

Architect Will Alsop's Palestra scheme near the South Bank in London is set to boost its green credentials with 14 micro-wind turbines and solar panels on the roof.

Energy minister Malcolm Wicks announced last week that the building, which will house the London Development Agency offices, had been awarded £310,552 funding for 64 kWp of renewable energy products.